WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tizer]

I guess the reason we've heard little about the GCR is primarily due to the endeavours of enthusiastic but financially challenged proponents being suppressed by the HS2 gang.
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I liked this cartoon in The Times of last Saturday (I expect the thing in his pocket is the infamous kipper)...

[Stanley]

Brilliant cartoon and totally correct.
I have always been suspicious about HS2. The basic flaw as I see it is that it ignores one of the basic principles of rail transport, to serve as many people as is practically possible. HS2 was conceived as a land version of an airline service, simply connecting two destinations and saving what? Half an hour on the journey? This is fundamentally wrong and all the arguments have been based on speed. I doubt if the illusory benefits calculated by its promoters will ever be realised. As for the cost, can you remember the sackings after it was forecast that the cost would double from £50billion to £100billion? And yet they themselves have admitted to £70billion now and rising. Think Crossrail, delivery dates and budget.
I can't help thinking that we are in an era of extremely expensive cunning plans. Crossrail, Sizewell C, HS2 and now Brexit.
I must be a dinosaur because I disagree with the thinking behind all of them.

[Tizer]

No, you're not a dinosaur. You're one of those quick-thinking mammals, looking out of the end of its burrow as the dinosaurs go clumping by and wondering `How is it they claim they're too big to fail?' Meanwhile, in the sky a new star is showing up even in the daytime and seems to be getting bigger. You quickly dive back down the burrow, stop up the entrance and get out your survival kit...

On a different subject...
`Harland and Wolff: What will happen to Belfast's yellow cranes?' LINK

[Tripps]

`Harland and Wolff: What will happen to Belfast's yellow cranes?'

I was surprised to learn that this company has only 130 employees - down from 35,000 at the peak. In contrast Tesco are about to make 4.500 staff from their Metro stores redundant, but then Tesco unlike the DUP, don't hold the balance of power in Westminster.

Side note -
I look forward to a news article on this company that doesn't mention Titanic, or one on spaghetti that doesn't mention 'al dente'.

[Tizer]

You'll be lucky!

`Tardigrades: 'Water bears' stuck on the moon after crash' LINK

[Stanley]

Tiz, I like your description of me peering out of the burrow. Spot on!
I love the tardigrades! All right, highly irresponsible to send them there but compared with our other errors, not a biggie.
David, the story of how we neglected our ship building industry to the point of extinction is in line with all the other manufacturing skills we lost simply because the bean-counters ruled it was cheaper to go elsewhere. That's how we lost the Commanding Heights.
News that Margaret and Mick are coming over from Oz in May next year. So I have to survive another winter......
Always a pleasure to take the first sip of my freshly brewed Machu Pichu coffee in the early morning......

[Bodger]

Further to my previous post:- https://archive.org/details/recentcottonmill00nasm

[Tizer]

One for Chinatyke, perhaps?
`Street photography reveals China in the 1980s' LINK

[Tizer]

The Tintagel footbridge that was being built while we were there earlier this year is now finished and you might have seen it on the One Show last night. There is a video here:
`Cornwall: English Heritage builds Tintagel Castle footbridge' LINK

[Big Kev]

Full mortgage application submitted at 16:29
Mortgage offer received at 16:30

I'm obviously a safe bet

[Stanley]

That's nice..... One more problem out of the way. How's your passport declaration for Lancashire going on?
Dire weather warnings all day and this morning it's windy and wet. Tiz could be getting it a lot worse...
What a good spot the forms opposite Post Office Corner are at 3 in the afternoon for a sit and some light people watching.
Later, just heard that Joseph Stiglitz is on Today at 08:30. I shall be listening to what he has to say.....

[Tizer]

...and he said what we'd expect. Good man!

`Tesla motors make classic Ferraris go faster' LINK

OG could do with one - it's very slow for me today. I can browse other web pages while waiting for OG pages to load.

[Stanley]

Yes Tiz, it has had some very slow spells of late..... It can happen any time of day. Today my experience is that it is normal at the moment. Yesterday it was slower in the middle of the day.
Because of my son in law Mick's involvement I am aware that the European Four in hand competition is imminent! He is going there with his brother Wilf who is a competitor.

[Wendyf]

I used to go to watch the horse driving trials at Lowther near Penrith which was always exciting, there is such skill involved in the various disciplines. The Duke of Edinburgh was always there with his team of black Fell ponies.

[Tripps]

This looks like an enormously exciting project. Wellness Village

Not your usual entrepreneur, in fact she looks very much like the daughter of Fu Manchu who was on TalkingPics TV last night, and the whole idea looks like it came from a James Bond film.

What could possibly go wrong?

[Tizer]

Let us know when you've had your own `world-class wellness experience' at the village.

This is what Dyson engineers do in their spare time. Automatically water your plants and safe the planet at the same time.
`Engineers design flat pack self-watering plant pot' LINK

[Cathy]

How strange, twice I've clicked on Wellness Village and twice I've been disconnected from OG.

[Tizer]

That Wellness link opens OK for me Cathy, but I had problems earlier with Tripps's mangrove link in the climate thread (but now it's OK). Also I couldn't open a link that Panbiker sent me in a PM. I was unexpectedly logged out yesterday. But we are having some very stormy weather here at present and maybe that's a cause.

[PanBiker]

I think I have sussed the Octopus link Tiz, see my PM.

[Tripps]

Works OK for me. Perhaps try 'open in new window' ?

I looked again at it. Seems a bit fanciful to me, or is it another step in the Chinese 21st Century plan to take over the world. I still think Fu Manchu is in on it somewhere.

I like the final paragraph.

She jointly owns a research and development centre with the China Academy of Sciences, and is an economic advisor for the Chinese government. A Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said: "The trust can confirm that the site is being sold to Global Healthcare Real Estate Ltd and we look forward to seeing the plans as they develop. "We welcome the fact that the historic site is retaining its connections with healthcare through a health and wellness village."

Papworth Trust officials say the sale remains subject to contract and remains their property until completion.

[Stanley]

There was an interesting article in the Private Eye this week about a 'wellness village' that has failed.....
Bodge, I missed the link to Green's Economisers until this morning. I knew them well!



The Connies at Bancroft in 1977.

[Stanley]

I've just had to consult the 1853 map of Whitemoor and noticed something that has escaped me until now. What is now Sunnybank Farm is noted as North House. Not earth shaking but one more tiny piece of local knowledge!

[Tizer]

There was an interesting article in the Private Eye this week about a 'wellness village' that has failed.....

I wonder if it's this one mentioned back in January? If so, it's been in contention for several years and had some dodgy people associated with it.
`Planners approve £200m Llanelli wellness village' LINK

[Tripps]

Well - that's half an hour of my life I'll never get back - going through the Eye with a magnifying glass to find the article . Failed.

I tried to convey - without being sued - that I am sceptical, and that the project will probably never materialise. It takes bottomless public funds to do things like that.

You can smell 'em can't you?

PS It brings to mind this project which is shortly to open. It will be good to read after a couple of years. All boxes ticked to get public funds. New Ice Rink

[Tizer]

Perhaps it's gone belly up already? When i clicked the link I got the British Ice Skating site but the page said: `The resource you are looking for has been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable.'